Testing string against array of char[]

Okay. So, I have a text file with state names, and state abbreviations, thusly:

ALASKA
AK
ARKANSAS
AR
..and so on.

I have to load the abbreviations ONLY from the file into an array of char[ - (already done and tested).

I have to get a 2 char abbreviation as a string,then test it against the state array to make sure it is a valid abbreviation.
As it stands, my test is never finding an invalid abbreviation..
Here is where I get the input